WASHINGTON (AP) — Future economic prosperity depends on building a new, stronger foundation and recapturing the “spirit of innovation,” President Barack Obama says.

“Innovation has been essential to our prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to our prosperity in the future,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

The president cited Friday’s Commerce Department report showing that in the past few months the economy overall has done “measurably better than expected.” He credited his $787 billion economic stimulus program for much of that progress.